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Smuggling Plums
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a pair of purple speedos.
I suspect at this point that you are wondering why a site that is primarily devoted to gaming has put such a thing onto the page. The reason is simple, today I am going to talk about dreams, and that speedo is the symbol of a dream.
The dream in question, however, is not my own. It is the dream of my best friend, Lee. Now you are probably thinking that Lee wants to be an olympic swimmer, or a diver, or maybe he just wants to show off his package in public. The answer is actually closer to the latter than you would expect. Lee has decided that he wants to start entering himself in body building competitions. This has caused me no end of amusement, and I have bugged Lee about it from day one. I'm pretty sure he knows that I support him 100% in this, but the activity itself is so far removed from my realm of experience that the whole undertaking seems comical to me. I simply can't comprehend why anyone would want to do that to themselves.
But Lee's goal has really got me thinking about the nature of aspirations. The truth is that Lee and I have been notoriously unsupportive of each other's dreams. When I first went to audition for an acting job with a murder mystery dinner theater he told me, "Don't get your hopes up". When I first started doing amateur stand up comedy I got the same reaction. And almost every time Lee started something new, whether it was music, or skating, or joining the military, I was right there to offer him the gift of my sarcasm.
Today the reason behind my behavior hit me like a four hundred page psychology textbook. Somehow I have gotten the impression that nothing is worth doing unless people don't think that you can. Traditionally I start off really well, I think to myself, "Ha, I'll show them, I can do anything I set my mind to! I am an unstoppable robotic juggernaut! Your cities will squish between my toes like vinyard grapes!" Then as soon as people start saying I'm good at something I quit. I'm not sure if this is a mentality that developed because of my upbringing or because I play too many video games. Either way if things start coasting along too easily I generally tend to go out of my way to complicate them.
Of course, I have no way of knowing if poor Lee shares this mentality. Is the conflict that I put between him and his goals actually pushing him on to greater things or is it merely tattering his sense of self? I guess the easiest way to know would be to ask him. One way or the other, I'd just like Lee to know that if he wants to grease himself up and strut around in a speedo then that's cool with me... As long as he doesn't do it down at the local McDonald's.
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Hello! Just a quick post before I go to bed, I have added links on the right hand side of this page. I finally added in all the Intellivision games I bought over this past summer to my collection listing on IGN. According to them my game collection is worth around four thousand dollars. That's a pretty scary thought when you consider that many of the games have probably depreciated in value by at least 50% since I bought them. Anyway, if you feel like adding even more games to my collection, I have yet to refuse a kind donation. But wait, how are you going to know which games I want??? Oh, yeah, that's what the second link is for. Other than that I've just thrown together a few other links to sites I enjoy. I'll be shifting those links around on and off as the whim strikes me, so visit them now, this may be a limited time offer!
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Throw Me the Idol, Indie!
Last night American Idol started up again which means that my fiancee will be glued to the television for the next little while. I have to admit that it is hard for me to despise the show when I see how happy it makes her. The truth is that with her voice she should be up there singing her heart out with the rest of them. Maybe I'll be able to convice her to try out for the Canadian Idol competition this year.
The winners have been announced over at The Game Creators site. The first prize entry looks really cool, I can't wait to get home and try it out. I'd like to send congratulations out to everyone who entered, it was a tough competition and it looks like a lot of great entries were put in. I think Drak Basic is really starting to show off what it can do, and hopefully it will only continue to grow. The indie developer scene is growing exponentially lately, and a sort of underground games renaissance seems to be the result.
As a last little note I would like to mention that the EgoAnt main site is finally back online, though in all honesty most of the content ends up going right here on this page.
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 Rock Around the Clock
Over the weekend I read an article in a local paper about a drug called "Provigil". I find this drug to be fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Provigil is an approved, fully legal prescription drug designed to treat narcolepsy. For those of you who don't know, narcolepsy is a disorder in which people become uncontrollably tired, and often nod off for no apparent reason. Imagine having to spend an entire day watching nothing but a mix of reality television and the shopping channel, and you'll have an idea how hard it is for narcolepsy sufferers to stay awake.
On the official Provigil website they claim that it "improves daytime wakefulness". Apparently the drug does not make you edgy or jittery like caffiene, amphetamines, or pretty much any of the other primary drugs used to keep the gears of our sleep deprived corporate machines twitching. Apparently modafinil, which is the non-brand name of the drug, also has been found to "selectively improve neuropsychological task performance".
So basically, as I understand it, this drug makes it so you don't have to sleep as often, AND makes you smarter?!?! And it does this without sending you into a crashing spiral at the end of the cycle... Holy shit! All this basically sounds like the perfect LAN party drug! Let ravers have ecstasy, rastafarians have weed, Hourman have "Miraclo", and let the nerds have Provigil! Imagine going an entire weekend without sleep and suffering no side effects!
Okay, so now I've got you all pumped up about the potential for this drug let's get to the terrifying part. I would like to say, for the record, that I do not endorse the use of this drug in any way except for its intended purpose, the treatment of narcolepsy. As terrific as all of the above things make it sound the truth is that modafinil is still a drug, and one designed to counteract your body's natural processes. The truly scary thing about that is that more and more drugs like this are being developed every day. Pretty soon you could be competing in the workforce with someone who comes in bright eyes and bushy tailed at 5 am, works until 11 pm, and when they get home still feel they have time to paint the house before bed. This might sound like a dream come true to anyone who is extremely ambitious, but as we have seen in the past time and time again, nothing comes without a cost. First of all, although it may cause increases in short term cognition, the act of sleeping has been shown to be one of the things that helps your brain file memories away for the long term. In addition sleep helps build your immune system. Add to this the fact that researchers aren't really sure how the drug works, and have no idea what the long term effects are, and you have the potential for disaster.
And this is just the beginning. I mean, how many of our bodily functions are they planning on making optional? As things like this get to be more and more prevalent we could end up watching commercials on TV for things like "NoShit", the drug that stops you from having to take a dump for up to five days! Their slogan could be, "NoShit, Sherlock, it works!".
I think we are heading down a crazy, dangerous path. Can't get an erection? Viagra! Can't take the time to sleep? Provigil! Can't control your appetite? Adipex! We are externalizing the responsibility of taking care of ourselves, and that seems like the most dangerous thing of all to me. Our culture seems to love the idea that no matter how bad you screw up it can always be blamed on one person, and fixed by another. How is anyone supposed to feel like they are in control of their own lives if we promote this? The truth is that a lot of people have problems that they need outside help to fix, but there are a whole shitload of people who could fix their own problems and just can't be bothered to take the time and effort involved, and that saddens me.
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